The Watchers

“The forest was dark on the brightest day.”

This first line of the novel establishes Shine’s complex use of symbolism regarding the duality of darkness and light. Even during the day, the watchers’ realm is characterized by dark, unfamiliar horrors. As Mina will eventually discover, the presence of light is part of their horror, even as darkness conceals the full extent of the watchers’ inhumanity.

“It looked so dismally uninviting beneath the blue sky, like a renaissance impression of heaven and hell.”

This is Mina’s impression of the forest when she begins to walk through it. By invoking the often-ominous artistic depictions of liminal realms that were created during the Renaissance, Shine imbues the grim setting with the sense that hidden realms are present and watching, just like the watchers themselves.

“Her artist’s imagination fancied a hundred horrible things that could have been responsible. Every horror movie she had ever seen and every Gothic tale she had ever read, they all paid their contribution.”

Again, Shine uses vague allusions to literature and pop culture alike, allowing for a wide range of interpretations. Ironically, by making the description so generic, the author opens up a range of visceral possibilities, deliberately inviting readers to invoke personalized images of horror.